I was a former senior manager at KPMG and since 1994 the owner of the Marks Group PC, a 10 person customer relationship management consulting firm based outside Philadelphia. I've written six small-business management books, most recently "The Manufacturer's Book of List" and “In God We Trust, Everyone Else Pays Cash: Simple Lessons From Smart Business People.” Besides Forbes, I daily for The Washington Post and weekly for Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine and the Huffington Post monthly for Philadelphia Magazine. I am an unpaid contributor to Forbes. I make no compensation from the number of people who read what I write here. Follow me on Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In.

12/12/2011 @ 7:25AM780,165 views

If I Were A Poor Black Kid

President Obama gave an excellent speech last week in Kansas about inequality in America.

“This is the defining issue of our time.” He said. “This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. Because what’s at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement.”

He’s right. The spread between rich and poor has gotten wider over the decades. And the opportunities for the 99% have become harder to realize.

The President’s speech got me thinking. My kids are no smarter than similar kids their age from the inner city. My kids have it much easier than their counterparts from West Philadelphia. The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder. This is a fact. In 2011.

I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.

It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this.

If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.

And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it’s oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home than on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell’s Outlet. Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all.

If I was a poor black kid I’d use the free technology available to help me study. I’d become expert at Google Scholar. I’d visit study sites like SparkNotes and CliffsNotes to help me understand books. I’d watch relevant teachings on Academic Earth, TED and the Khan Academy. (I say relevant because some of these lectures may not be related to my work or too advanced for my age. But there are plenty of videos on these sites that are suitable to my studies and would help me stand out.) I would also, when possible, get my books for free at Project Gutenberg and learn how to do research at the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia to help me with my studies.

Is this easy? No it’s not. It’s hard. It takes a special kind of kid to succeed. And to succeed even with these tools is much harder for a black kid from West Philadelphia than a white kid from the suburbs. But it’s not impossible. The tools are there. The technology is there. And the opportunities there.

In Philadelphia, there are nationally recognized magnet schools like Central, Girls High and Masterman. These schools are free. But they are hard to get in to. You need good grades and good test scores. And there are also other good magnet and charter schools in the city. You also need good grades to get into those. In a school system that is so broken these are bright spots. Getting into one of these schools opens up a world of opportunities. More than 90% of the kids that go to Central go on to college. I would use the internet to research each one of these schools so I could find out how I could be admitted. I would find out the names of the admissions people and go to meet with them. If I was a poor black kid I would make it my goal to get into one of these schools.

Or even a private school. Most private schools I know are filled to the brim with the 1%. That’s because these schools are exclusive and expensive, costing anywhere between $20 and $50k per year. But there’s a secret about them. Most have scholarship programs. Most have boards of trustees that want to give opportunities to kids that can’t afford the tuition. Many would provide funding for not only tuition but also for transportation or even boarding. Trust me, they want to show diversity. They want to show smiling, smart kids of many different colors and races on their fundraising brochures. If I was a poor black kid I’d be using technology to research these schools on the internet, too, and making them know that I exist and that I get good grades and want to go to their school.

And once admitted to one of these schools the first person I’d introduce myself to would be the school’s guidance counselor. This is the person who will one day help me go to a college. This is the person who knows everything there is to know about financial aid, grants, minority programs and the like. This is the person who may also know of job programs and co-op learning opportunities that I could participate in. This is the person who could help me get summer employment at a law firm or a business owned by the 1% where I could meet people and show off my stuff.

If I was a poor black kid I would get technical. I would learn software. I would learn how to write code. I would seek out courses in my high school that teaches these skills or figure out where to learn more online. I would study on my own. I would make sure my writing and communication skills stay polished.

Because a poor black kid who gets good grades, has a part time job and becomes proficient with a technical skill will go to college. There is financial aid available. There are programs available. And no matter what he or she majors in that person will have opportunities. They will find jobs in a country of business owners like me who are starved for smart, skilled people. They will succeed.

President Obama was right in his speech last week. The division between rich and poor is a national problem. But the biggest challenge we face isn’t inequality. It’s ignorance. So many kids from West Philadelphia don’t even know these opportunities exist for them. Many come from single-parent families whose mom or dad (or in many cases their grand mom) is working two jobs to survive and are just (understandably) too plain tired to do anything else in the few short hours they’re home. Many have teachers who are overburdened and too stressed to find the time to help every kid that needs it. Many of these kids don’t have the brains to figure this out themselves – like my kids. Except that my kids are just lucky enough to have parents and a well-funded school system around to push them in the right direction.

Technology can help these kids. But only if the kids want to be helped. Yes, there is much inequality. But the opportunity is still there in this country for those that are smart enough to go for it.

Editor’s note — This post has generated an enormous amount of feedback here on Forbes and across the web. Here are a few of those responses:

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Ryan, I am sorry but the problem is not that there are not enough computers in the library. The problem is that the poor people that go to the library to use the computer aren’t looking for the things mentioned in this post. The problem is that education is not that important anymore, and many give up, accepting their role at the bottom of the society when there are many people that want to help. Read more in my reply to the comment above, to upgradeddiddy

Regardless of what Gene Marks knows about poor people, the truth is that a lot of what he said is correct. And upgradediddy, it is completely false and unproductive to say that private schools would not accept a student from a poor neighborhood, or “the ghetto.” I am an African American at Columbia University, the son of 2 African immigrants, who grew up poor in PG County in Maryland, outside of DC. This is not the worst part in America, but i attended boarding school with poor students from Trenton, Newark, Baltimore, DC, Harlem, Philadelphia, Asbury Park, and many more places. The school was a boarding school called Peddie, a very expensive school, but they give so much money in financial aid that I went to school almost for free. Many of the students from the cities I mentioned had witnessed deaths before their eyes, or lived around drugs, or had seen guns first hand, owned by their friends. But minorities have an advantage in that these predominantly white schools don’t want to be predominantly white, they want to be diverse. But the problem is, not enough minority students try to go to these schools. Many will pay for you to go for free, if you just apply. But most do not. There is a lack of information out there, and if it wasn’t for PROJECT MATCH, based in DC for minority students, I would never have known of such opportunities. The only reason I am able to go to Columbia University is because I went to boarding school. They guide you the entire way. I went to Fay School from 7th to 9th, and then Peddie until 12th. It was a blessing. This man is trying to share such opportunites with others, instead of condemning him or trying to look for ignorance or racism, just go and share what you’ve learned with those around you who might be serious about their education as well. So many people want to give money to poor students, but they are too lazy to go out and find them. So we must take the initiative ourselves, and find them. That’s all I have to say.

GeneMarks, of course that is what you would do- what most adults who grew up in a middle class family would do if they were thrown into a poor family/neighborhood and had all the given knowledge, ease and likely abudant love of growing up in a middle class family.

You cannot look back with an adult’s frame of mind after being raised in a white middle class family and accurately or fairly say what you would do as a poor black child- it’s impossible for you to know or understand what it would be like. It is naive at best and ignorant at worst. Sadly, many kids from low-income families deal with much worse things than low-quality schools. Many of these kids are fighting only to survive. How can a child seek out things they don’t even know are available when they don’t have the safety and security that you enjoyed growing up? If you want to help these kids fight to succeed, you should donate your time to mentoring.

Are you saying that, if Mr. Marks had the resources, people to show him how to make it, and enough drive, he would not be able to build a “moon rocket”, whatever that is? Or are you one of those that thinks, because only certain people do something, everyone else cannot do it? Poor students with that attitude have already lost. Thank goodness I didn’t have parents to teach me that kind of attitude

Hi Mr. Marks! I think you have the wrong idea of what it is like to grow up in a poverty stricken environment. When you are a person looking from the outside in, it is easy to say what you would do, but that changes when you are actually in that situation. You stated that the opportunities are there if you ” study hard and get good grades, use technology to help them get good grades, apply to the best schools they can, get help from their guidance counselor, and make sure to learn a good skill.” but everything isn’t as black and white. You are not looking into the gray areas. It is hard for poor black students to make school their first priority when they see their parents struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Their first priority is to get a job so they can help with the bills and make sure their family has a place to sleep. It is hard living in poverty stricken places and having school as a priority, because people there face the problem of having to deal with crime, and violence that occurs in those types of neighborhoods. So their next priority is to stay alive, and to keep their mom and younger siblings safe when they walk out of the door every day.

Do you really think it would be that easy to study and get good grade when everything around you is a distraction. When you live in apartment with walls so thin you could hear everything going on in the next rooms, I think you won’t be able to focus. And do you think you can go to a library that is far away from where you live every day to do homework and study because, libraries are not found in your neighborhood, while you try to work and help put food on the table. And like one person mentioned do you really think people are going to spend their money on computers when they don’t even have light, running water or heat in their houses. I don’t think a computer is a priority in that instance. And I’m sure you know this but ill mention it anyway, applying to schools also cost money that poor black kids don’t have. And think about the quality of schools these poor black kids are going to. They have a lack of good books needed to prepare for upper level classes, or SAT’s. They have over crowded classes which make it hard for them to get the help needed to succeed in the class. And now school are facing budget cut which make it even harder because now they have the lack of teachers. You have teachers who went to school to teach one thing, stepping in to teach another subject because the school had to let some teachers go. I can go on and on about the education system, which all points back to the fact that getting good grade and applying to the best schools don’t always work out. It’s not that simple.

Another thing you overlooked is the fact that many of these poor black kids don’t have access to much information about scholarships, and programs geared to help people in their condition. I don’t believe it is a problem of them not using their resources but, them not knowing the resources are there.

In middle class neighborhoods you have total access to information about these kinds of things. You can pay people to tutor your kids with their SAT’s and ACT’s. You can afford to enroll them in these programs like Kaplan, and AList. The schools in your neighborhoods have classes dedicated to college and career readiness, which teaches your kids about all of the opportunities out there. Schools in poor neighborhoods don’t have those classes, and they usually make up for this with after school programs.

Poor black kids are usually forced to rely on after school programs to let them know about, fee waivers and how to access them. They rely on after school programs to give them access to computers and books, they rely on after school programs to give them classes to help them with college and career readiness skills. They also rely on after school programs to keep them off of the street, and to keep them productive. But of course even those after school programs are being cut, due to budget cuts so kids are no longer aware of those many opportunities. In conclusion, what you said is true, it is possible for poor black student to succeed, but it takes a lot more than what you included in your recipe for success. It take people who have the skills and resources, people like you and I to go and show these kids the way to success by letting them know that there are other opportunities. And when we tell them about those opportunities, we have to help them get access to the resources they need to get the opportunities. And I believe you had good intentions when writing this article but all I ask is that you take into account all factors before writing. I ask you to put yourself in their shoes first before you say what you would do if you were in their shoes. Then you could see that it is easier said than done!

I published this comment before without adding my credentials, so here they are: I am a black student who recently graduated from a school like the one I mentioned in my comment. I know I probably would have made it this far, to an Ivy League University, without the help of others which is how I am able to speak about what I feel is missing from your recipe of success. Determination, hard work, is definitely necessary, but it takes a lot more than that!

If I Were a Ignorant Middle Class White Man by Briana Ohene on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:53pm I recently read a post one of my friends had on their feed:

“If I Were A Poor Black Kid” http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/12/12/if-i-was-a-poor-black-kid/2/

First of all, let’s just start with the damn title, “IF I WERE A POOR BLACK KID”, I knew the article was going to be some bullshit based on the title this man chose to use. The title is insensitive and shows absolute disrespect for black people and their struggle.

Gene Marks: “My kids are no smarter than similar kids their age from the inner city. My kids have it much easier than their counterparts from West Philadelphia. The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder. This is a fact. In 2011.”

Why is it necessary to state that your children are no smarter than kids their age from the “inner-city”. Of course they are not smarter! They are more privileged than their counterparts!

Gene Marks: I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them.

Ummmm yes you are right you are NOT a poor black kid, and life was easier for you so how can you state that these “inner-city” kids have these so-called opportunities if you are not a poor black kid to even experience what opportunities may be available to them?? This is a contradiction..

Gene Marks: I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.

Once again, If you are not a poor black kid and have not had the experiences of a poor black kid. How can you say that EVERYONE in this country has a chance to succeed? Let’s evaluate why this statement is bullshit and in fact a privileged statement. For one, this country was built off of free labor, free labor that black people have never benefitted from. Who benefitted from this free labor?? For generations whites have had the upperhand because of the money inherited and passed on for generations..FREE $$ Black people on the other hand have had to work very hard for pennies to maintain family households with BOTH parents working and sometimes the children. To save any money to be passed down to their descendants would be impossible, instead the descendants are left with nothing at all or debt. This is why 40acres and a mule/reparations has been an ongoing controversial topic for years. Systemically black people are at a disadvantage.

Gene Marks: It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this.

Really? And how do people know about these resources? You say you’re speaking from the standpoint of being a poor black kid. If you were a poor black kid whose parents were not aware of these resources and the technology how do you expect the kid to know about the resources? From the barely-funded puiblic school they go to? Where teachers are trained to discipline students and not teach, where kids tend to focus more on their empty bellies than their academics because they cannot focus?, where there are 35-40 students crunched in one classroom with barely enough seats, desks or updated textbooks to go around? where teachers are underpaid and fed up? In this day when public libraries are being closed; how do these kids get the information to even know what available resources out there when they are not being told? How would they know where to look what sites to go to? Is this something that a white kid from a middle class family has to worry about? How do they get their information?

Gene Marks: If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.

Yes, I agree with hard work and the best grades one may have some open doors for them to succeed and advance. But what about the poor black kid who was never given the proper education due to the lack of resources? What about the poor black kid who cannot focus in school because there is a fight in ther class everyday? or the kid who cannot complete their homework because they have to work nights, or help their parents at night with siblings so that they can work? or what about the kid who is automatically told they are a behavior issue and shipped off to “special ed” classes or told they have a learning disability because they view numbers and words differently from their counterparts? It is absolutely true with hard work and the grades it opens up opportunities. But what does it take for the kid to be able to focus on there grades and not be hungry, or to focus on grade and not worry about being attacked in their neighborhood because everyone around them is struggling to make it as well? How can we make it so that it is easy for them to focus on grades and how can we help them get these grades?

Gene Marks: And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it’s oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home then on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell’s Outlet. Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all.

Again, people do not get information like this out of the sky. We are told these things we are educated on what resources are out there. Are you going into these inner cities with your “I know technology” shit and educating familes and schools on these resources and websites? And white middle class man of course it would be easy to say there are sites where you can get computers cheap but what is cheap to you is not cheap to the average poor black kid or parent who is struggling. If i had to choose between a “cheap” 100$ computer or paying rent/putting food on my families table what do you think I would choose?

I think if I were a Ignorant White Middle Class man I would think it was that simple too. If I were a Ignorant Middle Class White Man I would read up on black politics and the social/racial/economical injustices to get a better understanding of why this poor black kid is not afforded certain opportunities. I would read books like Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Race Matters or Frantz Fanon’s The Psychology of Oppression. I would also read books by other white middle class people like Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. I would go into the communities and talk to the people and hear and understand what they are trying to say. I would go into the black communities and observe the conditions of the poor and go back to my community and observe some more and come to some understandings as to why both neighborhoods are so different. I would research systemic racism/oppression and environmental racism to getmore of an understanding of why things are the way they are. I would look at capitalism and its affects…but most of all I would take off those fuckin rose- colored glasses and check my privilege.

-Advocate for the Black Poor Kid

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. -Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

There is, in fact, no teaching without learning. One requires the other. -Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

Having been an inner city school teacher, let me just reiterate some of the comments that people from inner city upbringings have mentioned:

1. Computers are not this dime a dozen item that you seem to believe. I had few students with computers at home, and fewer with internet. I spent a lot of time with my kids after school, and never remember a single one mentioning any of the websites you named, except Wikipedia. On top of that, I can name few teachers who were familiar with those sites – so who would tell the kids?

2. Do you expect six year olds to teach themselves to read? 68% of inner city 4th graders are behind in reading. Its a tricky skill to teach oneself. Especially if you don’t have books at home and your parents don’t want you walking around your neighborhood to and from libraries by yourself when you’re 7 and they’re at work. By the time you’re old enough to have independently figured out how important these skills are, you’re going to be extraordinarily behind. Which won’t help you get into private or magnet schools.

3. Guidance counselors. Some are great. Many are not. At the first school where I taught, the college counselor did not tell any students (in honors classes or otherwise) when the PSAT would be offered until 2 days before test day. She was a very nice lady – but I never found her to be the most helpful for students.

I’m sure you were well-intentioned in writing this article. But you seem to have missed that kids often are not learning the basics. Its really hard to study effectively if you can’t read See Spot Run – doubly hard to teach oneself to code in that case. Add in all the other basic skills (I had kindergarten teachers regularly tell me about the amount of time they spent just teaching kids to hold pencils) kids often need just to be able to meaningfully work hard – and I assure you, most kids just don’t have the resources to get where you think they “can.”

Its only 2 miles to the “poor black kids”? I’d encourage you to spend the 60 cents on gas and do a little more research before your next article.

Here’s the thing. You are not a poor black kid, and have never been a poor black kid, and you thus have no idea what you would do if you were in the position of a poor black kid. You simply cannot conceive of the day to day issues that come along with being poor and black in America today. You mentioned “getting help from their guidance counselor”, but this makes an assumption that there are guidance counselors whose case loads are not so large that they simply cannot focus on improving student lives. You mention, “[using] technology to help them get good grades], but key to this is a basic understanding of computers, much of which is gained in computer classes at schools. If you are a truly POOR black kid, you don’t go to a school with the resources to provide you with this knowledge. I don’t feel it necessary to go into any more of the specifics of your argument because its premise is innately flawed. You will never and have never, had the experience of a poor black kid. Your argument is based in some fictional perception of what their lives are like. But that’s all it is; fiction.